Give Me the Finger/Transcript
Captain Gregson: Hey, Hannah. What are you doing here? I'm about to about to go off duty. Hannah Gregson: Wanted to see you. Captain Gregson: Oh, well, I'm just wrapping up here. Paige and I are gonna grab some dinner in Little Italy. Want to join? Hannah: Yeah. I'd love to. Um, I just want to talk to you first. Captain Gregson: Everything okay? Hannah: I only need a few minutes. Can we talk in your office? Captain Gregson: Yeah, sure. Collins (Firefighter): 57 truck to Command. Ladder team has the fire knocked down. 57 is conducting a primary search. Radio: Copy that. Collins (Firefighter): Fire Department. Anybody in here? We got one! We got one! Female Firefighter: 10-45 code 2. We have an unconscious male. We need EMS standing by. Radio: EMS is on the way. Collins (Firefighter): Cancel the medics. We're gonna need the police. This guy's been murdered. Detective Bell: Best we can tell, that's Ando Azuma. 35, Japanese national. Immigrated to New York four years ago. Says on his lease he's a "freelance I.T. consultant." Looks like whoever killed him hit him from behind with a blunt object, tied his wrists with zip ties, then went to work with that knife. Joan Watson: When they were done, they slashed his throat. Bell: The knife is from Ando's kitchen. He was probably hit with that bronze Buddha. Watson: What about the zip ties? Bell: Right, well, those I'm guessing the killer brought, but it's hard to know for sure. The fire really tore through this place, which was probably the point. Killer didn't want to leave any evidence behind. Still, I think I know what this was about. Look at his left hand. Watson: He's missing the mid and distal bones of his pinky finger. Bell: At first, I thought the killer did it before he set the fire, but there's no exposed bone. Watson: So it healed a long time ago. Bell: So, Japanese man plus severed pinky plus full body tattoos usually equals yakuza. Sherlock Holmes: To be fair, Ando's pinky does seem to indicate that he participated in yubitsume, the ritual by which yakuza repay their sins against their clan by slicing off a finger joint, but this keyboard adds an important detail. There is a lack of grime on the far left-hand keys. If you couple that with the oil-free grooming products and the silicone repair putty I found in Ando's bedroom, it becomes clear that our victim wore a prosthetic finger. Bell: And that changes things how? Holmes: Active yakuza proudly display their stumps as a sign of honor. Ex-members, they do their best to conceal their criminal pasts. I think he was a retired yakuza. Watson: Retired or not, this would be a good way to start a gang war. Holmes: Perhaps, but I don't believe that Ando's death was the sole objective of our killer. Whoever killed him also took something. His artificial digit. Silicone burns much less readily than human flesh. If he were wearing it, there would be some evidence of it near the body, but there isn't, nor is there any evidence of it in any of the undamaged areas of the apartment. Bell: You saying you think all this was about stealing a fake pinky? Holmes: Normally, I'd say the game's afoot, but in this case, I think it's a finger. Bethany Ito: I'm looking for Mr. Watanabe. Holmes (speaking Japanese): In a manner of speaking, I am Mr. Watanabe. Holmes: My apologies, Ms. Ito. I lied on our phone call. I'm not, in fact, a former yakuza in need of a prosthetic finger. My real name is Sherlock Holmes, and this is Detective Bell of the NYPD. Bell: We'd like to ask you some questions. Ito: I'm a single mother. I have two kids in private school, so a few years ago, when this older Japanese man offered me a lot of money to make him a prosthetic... Holmes: You took his money, and you suddenly found yourself in business with the yakuza. Ito: Ex-yakuza. How did you find me? Holmes: In Japan, there are any number of off-the-books clinics which, uh, help former gangsters to disguise their tell-tale stumps, and we suspected that former yakuza in New York would use a similar service. Bell: And you're the only Japanese-speaking prosthetics technician in the city. Ito: You said you had some questions about Ando Azuma. Did he do something wrong? Holmes: He was murdered. Bell: We wanted to talk to you because we have reason to believe the person who killed him also stole his prosthetic finger. Could be it was a trophy. Could be something more. Holmes: That's why you're here, Ms. Ito. So, was there something about it? Something worth killing over? Ito: Maybe. That thing that looks like a finger bone, that's a flash drive. Ando had me embed it in his prosthetic. Bell: Wait. His pinky is a thumb drive? Any idea what he was planning to use it for? Ito: He said he worked in I.T. He thought it would be funny. Bell: You didn't think maybe he wanted it for some criminal purpose? Ito: Ando wasn't like the others, okay? He told me he was forced to be in the yakuza when he was just a teenager. He was a computer wiz, and they needed someone with his skills. After they made him move here, he decided to get out, so he cut off his pinky, he paid off his boss... Holmes: Took to wearing an undetectable hard drive on the end of his finger. Bell: There's a chance whatever Ando was doing post-retirement got him killed, so if there's anything you can tell us that might help... Ito: He paid me from an account on the dark Web. I'll give you the account info. If you can get into it, maybe you can get a sense of how he was really making his money. Watson: You wanted to see me? Gregson: Oh, yeah. Come in. Have a seat. Watson: If this is important, I, I can get Sherlock on the phone. Gregson: No, no, it's, it's not a work thing. It's, uh personal. Hannah came to see me last night. She told me she's an alcoholic. Watson: I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Gregson: I guess she's on whatever step it is where you tell your dad. She said it's been going on for years. At home, on the job. Watson: Listen, I know this could not have been easy to hear, but Hannah telling you is a good thing. It means that she knows that she needs help and that she wants your support. Those are important steps towards recovery. Gregson: If you had asked me about her 24 hours ago, I would have said she's doing good. I missed all the signs. That's why I wanted to talk to you. You were a sober companion. I want to do the right thing by Hannah. Tell me what I need to do. Watson: Oh, hey, Mason. Mason: Who runs a symmetric AES at 1024 bit? Overkill, anyone? Watson: Well, it's nice to see you, too. So, Sherlock texted me. He said that, uh, he's got you working on Ando Azuma's dark Web account, right? Mason: By "looking into," you mean warring with the most depraved encryption coding, like, ever? While he's been doing that for hours? Holems: Mason is indulging in his generation's regrettable tendency towards hyperbole. The call was only 15 minutes long. It merely felt eternal. Watson: So, the Tokyo Police got back to you? Holmes: Inspector Natsuo was enormously helpful. We just had a bad connection. He consulted an informant and confirmed that after ten years of faithful service Ando Azuma retired from the yakuza. He sliced off his pinky, paid his exit fee and swore to never again engage in criminal activity. Now, yakuzas who retire with honor, as Ando did, are generally left in peace, so the inspector was surprised to hear that he'd been murdered. Watson: Why? He could have been killed by a rival gang member. You don't spend ten years in organized crime without making some enemies. Holmes: Well, the inspector had a theory of his own. Turns out Ando was not your typical yakuza thug. He was what was known as sokaiya, a specialist in industrial espionage and blackmail. Watson: So, that hidden flash drive that you and Marcus found out about, he could have had blackmail material on it. Holmes: Mm-hmm. Would've been a good place to keep sensitive material close, no? Sadly, we may never know what he was up to, because Mason has so far failed spectacularly at cracking Ando's dark Web account. I'm starting to wonder if I should turn to a computer expert with more experience. A member of Everyone, perhaps. Mason: Oh, I'm a hundred times better than those hacktivist dude-bros, and you know it. If you want results, how about you leave me alone and let me work? Watson: Do you think you were a little hard on Mason? Holmes: A young man works best when he has something to prove. He needs to feel embattled. Speaking of embattled, how went your summons to the Captain's chambers? I assume he wanted an update on my condition. Watson: Of course he did, because it's all about you all the time. Holmes: He did say he'd be keeping tabs on me. Watson: Actually, you didn't come up. Holmes: Then what did he want? Watson: He's dealing with an issue, and he wanted my advice. Holmes: Why your advice? Mason: Ha! Deal with it! You really think some Everyone drone could've cracked this kind of ice? They'd be crying in their basements. But no, I destroyed it like a boss. Watson: This account only has about 30 grand in it. Mason: Oh, no, I know, right? I mean I figured, with this kind of security, Ando would've had like millions of dollars in there. Instead, it was more like millions of yen, but this wasn't a total bust. Check this out. Holmes: Regular deposits. $3,000 a month, all from yet another dark Web account. Mason: Yeah. You said he was some kind of blackmailer, right? I'm betting those are blackmail payments. Watson: Did you back-trace them? Mason: The money came from someone named Go Shinura. I figure he's another yakuza. Watson: Okay, just because the victim is Japanese, it does not necessarily make him a yakuza. Holmes: Watson is correct. We must not jump to conclusions. That being said, Inspector Natsuo e-mailed me a list of Ando's former yakuza associates, with an emphasis on those currently living in New York, and guess who's on it? Holmes: There's something you wouldn't see in Japan. Back home, a known yakuza wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the sport of sumo wrestling for fear you'd fix the matches. Isn't that right, Mr. Shinura? Go Shinura: We're not in Japan. Watson: We're with the NYPD. We're here about a murder. I'm pretty sure that's against the rules everywhere. Go: You think Ando was blackmailing me? Watson: We do. We also think you got sick of paying him so you tortured him until he told you where he kept his blackmail material, and then you killed him. Go: That money I was sending him every month, it was to pay off a gambling debt. A hundred grand on the NBA Finals. Ando won. Watson: Gambling debt is still motive for murder. Go: But not for torture or stealing that...what did you call it? "Pinky drive"? I didn't even know he had that. Watson: Ando was killed between 11:00 and midnight last night. Can you account for your whereabouts? Go: I could, but I won't, because I don't want to lose any of my fingers. Holmes: Are you saying you were conducting yakuza business at the time of his murder? Watson: You realize you basically admitted to a motive but no alibi. Go: I'll admit more than that. I wanted Ando dead. He held that debt over me, charged me interest, like a civilian, but I couldn't kill him. Not yet. Watson: "Not yet"? Go: He was protected, because he retired from the yakuza with honor, but if he violated that honor... Holmes: It would be open season on him. The yakuza frown on their retired members resuming their criminal ways. Given Ando's carefully concealed hard drive... Watson: Stands to reason he was up to something sketchy. Go: I'd been following him. A few nights ago, I saw him break into an industrial compound. I think he robbed the place. I took pictures, sent them to Japan. Watson: And? Go: These things take time. Holmes: So, your point is you're innocent of Ando Azuma's murder because you were still waiting for permission to kill him? Go: My point is that if you are looking for Ando's killer, you might want to start with the people he robbed. Watson: This place looks deserted. Holmes: Well, let's hope not. That was Inspector Natsuo. His informants confirmed Go's story. No one was given permission to execute Ando, so unless Go is suicidal... Watson: He's innocent. Holmes: Making this our only lead. Watson: Marcus was not able to identify the person who owns this place, so maybe we should come back in the morning, wait for someone who actually works here? Holmes: Why would we do that when we've got the whole place to ourselves now? Soldier: Freeze! U.S. Air Force. On your knees. Hands behind heads. Holmes: Yeah, you were right, Watson. We should have waited till morning. Gregson: Red-eyes. Figured you'd need them, given how tired I am. Watson: We heard you went to bat for us last night. Thanks. Gregson: Oh, it's not over. I got two people from the Air Force waiting for you in the conference room. Seems like they still have questions about why you broke into a U.S. military facility in the middle of the night. Holmes: To be fair, it was an unmarked military facility. If there'd been proper signage, it would have obviated the need for a break-in. Gregson: Don't tell me. Tell them. 'Cause I get the feeling, if they don't like your answers, you're getting back in the van. Lt. Colonel Robin Deakins: Major Beckam here did background checks on both of you. Dr. Watson, you came back clear. Mr. Holmes, on the other hand, turns out to be a known foreign agent. Holmes: As I said last night, I've consulted for a variety of America's allies. I'm certainly no enemy of the United States. Gregson: I was told there were questions regarding the Ando Azuma homicide, so why don't we get to it? Holmes: That's a capital idea. Are either of you or your subordinates responsible for Mr. Azuma's murder? Deakins: Excuse me? Why would we have killed Mr. Azuma? Holmes: Perhaps to protect America's nuclear arsenal? Major Beckam, you are Air Force Security. Colonel Deakins has an ICBM badge on her uniform, so it's obvious what her specialization is. The facility that my partner and I attempted to infiltrate is part of the nuclear missile control system, is it not? Given its lack of radar and satellite relays, it can't be a launch site or an early warning station, so it must be a command and control hub? Watson: We know that Ando broke into the base. If he uncovered something that endangered national security... Holmes: You still in touch with that reporter at The Times? Beckam: We didn't kill Ando Azuma. In fact, he was working for us when he died. That "break-in" you mentioned, we paid him to do that. Gregson: The U.S. Air Force wanted a yakuza to breach one of their bases? Deakins: A former yakuza who'd become one of the top security consultants in the country. What he did was part of an assessment. He was thoroughly vetted. Beckam: And we can't get into the details, but suffice it to say we're in the process of testing a sensitive upgrade to some of our technology. Holmes: Likely an upgrade to the current nuclear missile command and control network. It's been reported in the news that an upgrade to the network is in the works, and that's a wise move, given that the computers currently running the system are dinosaurs from the 1970s that still use eight-inch floppy disks. Deakins: What we need to know now is, how compromised are we? It's our understanding that Ando was tortured. Did he give anything up? Watson: We're not sure. But did you know about his pinky? Beckam: What about his pinky? Deakins: We had no idea he was wearing this. Beckam: He had access to everything, every computer, every file... Deakins: If we were, hypothetically, testing an upgrade to our missile control network, our entire new operating system could be on that flash drive, and now it's missing. Gregson: I got one question. No hypotheticals. How bad is this? The nukes you control, are they safe? Beckam: A hundred percent. The system we were testing isn't linked to any other bases yet. Deakins: But we'll have to put a hold on our project, at least until we know exactly what's on that drive and where it landed. Watson: What if the data is in enemy hands? Backam: Then the whole system would need to be redesigned from scratch. We'd lose years, not to mention billions of dollars. Watson: Any news? Holmes: Yes, by which I mean "no." According to our favorite Man in Black, Agent McNally of the NSA, there's been no chatter about Ando Azuma's pinky or its contents on the world's inter-, intra- or dark nets. Watson: Could be whoever has it is sitting on it for some reason. Holmes: Or our killer and his prospective buyers are being extremely discreet. Watson: There is one other possibility I think we should look at. So, while you were out, the fire marshal issued her preliminary report on the fire at Ando's. Now, she does not think that the killer set the fire to cover his tracks, but rather it was an accident. Holmes: "The fire was the result of an unattended pan on the stove." She theorizes that Ando Azuma was cooking when he let the killer into his house. With no one to turn down the heat, the oil in the pan caught fire. Watson: Now, if she's right, it would mean that the killer left Ando there to be found, which would have made it easier for someone to realize that his prosthetic was missing, which would've then made it easier to figure out what it really was. Holmes: His Air Force employers would've shut down their upgrade that much sooner, meaning whoever possessed the pinky would no longer be able to hack America's nuclear missile system with impunity. Watson: Which got me thinking, what if hacking the system wasn't the point? What if all the killer wanted was to shut it down? So, according to some experts, the '70s-era system that the military currently uses, it's called "legacy tech", is safer than any modern replacement because it's basically immune to hacking, so there are plenty of people who oppose the upgrade on principle. Holmes: The "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" crowd. Watson: One of the upgrade opponents stood out. A blogger who calls himself Tree-Of-Liberty. Holmes: He calls the upgrade "murderously incompetent." Watson: The more you read, the more he sounds like someone who might kill to protect our nuclear security. Holmes: If he killed Ando Azuma, he would first have to have known that Azuma existed, and that would suggest he was involved in the upgrade somehow. Watson: I thought the same thing, so I looked for insiders who argued against the upgrade, and I found this. It's an op-ed from the Air Force Ledger by a General Alvero. So that highlighted phrase, "an existential threat to America's future", also appears in two of Tree-Of-Liberty's posts. I found other repetitions, too. Holmes: You think Alvero and Tree-Of-Liberty are one and the same? Watson: I think, when his op-ed didn't change anyone's mind, he created Tree-Of-Liberty to get more aggressive. Holmes: And when that didn't work, he killed Azuma to derail the upgrade. Watson: Like you said, it only works as a theory if he knew about Ando. I asked the Captain to reach out to the Air Force, see if Alvero had any connection to the base or the upgrade. With any luck, we'll hear back soon. Holmes: You know, you still didn't tell me what he wanted yesterday, the Captain. Watson: It was private. Holmes: Well, you can see how that doesn't alleviate my concerns that he was checking up on me. Look, I'll just go and ask him myself. Watson: He wanted to talk about Hannah. Holmes: His daughter? Watson: A couple of nights ago, she told him that she is an alcoholic. She's going to meetings, and she even has her 30-day chip, but the Captain felt blindsided, and he blames himself, so he wanted to talk about what he should do next. Holmes: Huh. Watson: He heard back from the lieutenant colonel we talked to, Deakins. So, not only is General Alvero stationed at her base, he's her boss. Gregson: Our Computer Crime Squad thinks it's gonna be pretty easy to trace Tree-Of-Liberty's blog to your home computer, General. Holmes: So, unless you want us to think that it's your wife or teenage daughter who holds the view that "the Joint Chiefs can drown in their own cuck blood"... General Alvero: I have photos in my phone. They'll prove I didn't kill Azuma. Now if I show them to you, you have to promise you won't share them with my colleagues. Gregson: I can't make any promises, General, but if they prove you're innocent, I'm pretty sure we're done with you. Alvero: These photos...they're of a sensitive nature. I'd ask Ms. Watson to step outside. Holmes: "Ms." Watson is a doctor. There's little she hasn't seen. I was wrong, Watson. You likely haven't seen this. Gregson: That's what you were doing the night Azuma was killed? Alvero: It relieves stress. Watson: And the woman in these photos, she can confirm when these were taken? Alvero: I don't know her real name. She calls herself Nurse Jessy. Um, but if you hand me the phone, I can dig up her e-mail. Listen, you should take a hard look at a man named Eddy Dunbridge. He's got a company out on the island, ReIssue Computing. ReIssue supplies us with the legacy tech we use to run our missile network. Eddy buys and refurbishes old computer equipment, deletes the data, resells it to us. Holmes: Why would a used computer salesman want to kill an ex-yakuza? Alvero: Once the upgrade goes through, the Air Force is going to destroy all its legacy tech. Eddy's sitting on a lot of inventory. Yeah, old computers, storage media. He'll go out of business. Gregson: The longer the upgrade's delayed, the more of his stock he can sell to the military? Alvero: Mm-hmm. Watson: And how would he have known about Ando? Alvero: Part of how Eddy keeps his Air Force contract is customer relations. He wines and dines the big decision makers. He takes us to dinners, Yankee games. At our last dinner, I may have complained that our new system was being tested by a former yakuza. I didn't name Ando, but Eddy is resourceful. What if he put it together? Maddie Williams: Hey, Hannah. Hannah: Tell me you remembered the ginger ale. Williams: I got you covered, but there's a guy outside, says he's looking for the owner of a parked car that he just hit. Don't freak out, but it's yours. Michael Rowan: Hey. You Hannah? Hannah: Afraid so. Rowan: Yeah, I was just telling your roommate I backed into your car. Sorry. Hannah: When I was a kid, we used to call that "parking by feel." Rowan: Yeah, uh, I'm an idiot. I just got this new car and tried to save money not getting parking sensors. Hannah: There's really not that much damage. Rowan: Well, then it won't cost much to fix. Hannah: Honestly, it's... Rowan: Please, I insist. We'll exchange information. Send me the bill, and I'll take care of it. Think I have a notepad in here somewhere. Hannah: Pretty sure most people would've just driven away. Rowan: Well, I guess I'm not most people. Bell: There you are. Thought maybe I'd driven to the wrong place. Holmes: How did it go with Nurse Jessy? Bell: Interesting woman. She confirmed General Alvero's story, then gave me a tour of her "establishment." Holmes: And? Bell: Let's just say there's a few things I'd like to unsee. Wh-What-What are we doing out here? I thought we were gonna meet at the home of that guy the general mentioned. Uh, Eddy Dunbridge? Holmes: We were, but when we got to Eddy's home, the door was ajar, and he was gone. Looked like he left in a hurry. We found his cell phone on the kitchen counter with the battery removed, along with his ATM and credit cards. Bell: Think he's on the run? Holmes: Watson's at the house now with a few detectives in case he comes back, but I noticed the empty box to a new pair of boat shoes in the mess he made when he was packing. That and some framed photographs of him on a fishing boat made us think he might have sailed away, but when I looked into his boat, it wasn't at sea, it was here. Now, the boat's not going anywhere, but that doesn't mean he's not on it. Holmes: So, Eddy's boat was assigned spot 63. Should be one of these. Bell: Police! Drop your weapon and show yourself! Eddy Dunbridge: You gotta help me! I'm stuck! Bell: What do you mean, "stuck"? Dunbridge: I wasn't firing at you. I had to shoot the glass out so you could hear me. My name's Eddy Dunbridge. I've been here for days, ever since they tried to kill me. Bell: Who tried to kill you? Dunbridge: I don't know. They hit me on the head, then zip-tied me. Holmes: Just like Ando Azuma. Dunbridge: I ran here to hide, but I sort of broke the door handle when I tried to barricade the hatch. Bell: Listen, Eddy, I'm gonna call ESU to get you out, but you gotta show me your hands. Holmes: Look at his wrists. He was telling the truth about being zip-tied. Not only is he not our killer... Bell: He was almost another victim. Gregson: Come in. Holmes: Eddy Dunbridge should be here soon. E.R. patched him up, rehydrated him. He suffered a concussion but should recover. Common theme these days. Surveillance from the boatyard shows him arriving five days ago, and he never left. Gregson: How sure are we that what happened to him is connected to what happened to Ando Azuma? Holmes: Both men were attacked in a similar fashion, a blow to the back of the head, followed by a binding of the wrists, and it appears that the same brand of zip tie was used on both occasions. Gregson: Anything else? Holmes: You were wondering if you missed something. With Hannah. I know about her recent disclosure. You might be concerned that her addiction was triggered by some genetic issue or failure in parenting, and-and that's quite normal. Although, to be fair, I usually hear these stories from the side of the addicts, not their families. Gregson: What makes you think I want to talk about this with you? Holmes: Nothing. I know you don't, but this is not about me or you. It's about Hannah and her sobriety. Worrying about the origin of her issues is counterproductive. In doing so, you risk making her substance abuse about you, when in fact, your energy and hers are best spent focusing on her recovery. Gregson: You think I don't know that? Holmes: I think that you're in pain, and despite our recent troubles, that bothers me. Look, my father was an abject failure as both a parent and a human being, but when it came to my own struggles, he did one thing right. He kept my recovery about me. You're ten times the man that he is, so if he can do right by me, I'm confident that you can do right by Hannah, but only once you move past blame. Gregson: Let me know how things go with Dunbridge. Dunbridge: They hit me from behind. I'm an insomniac, so I got to work around 4:00 a.m., but when I got to my office, someone was waiting for me. They bashed me in the head, and I woke up zip-tied in a closet. Big mistake. I watch all those survival shows on TV, so I know how to break out of zip ties. I snapped 'em in half, then escaped out a window before they could come back and finish me off. Holmes: At this point, Mr. Dunbridge, only one thing is certain. No one wanted you dead. The person who attacked you killed a former yakuza. If your assailant had wanted you dead, they would have slit your throat as they did with their other victim. Bell: Yeah, it sounds more like you interrupted a burglary and the perp thumped you to get you out of the way. Holmes: Well if that's correct, the question becomes what did the intruder want? And did they kill Ando Azuma two nights later because they didn't find it, or because they did? Holmes: Now, the last time you were in this position, do you remember seeing anything? Dunbridge: No. I mean, I was seeing stars. My head hurt. Wait. I remember hearing something before I got put in the closet. The copier was running. Bell: This is set to make eight-and-a-half-by-14 copies. Dunbridge: Last ones I made were regular sized, and no one was in here while I was gone. I don't have any permanent staff. Holmes: Must have copied something from your records. These are eight and a half by 14. Bell: "Acquisitions and Sales." Holmes: The dust has been disturbed on this one. Dunbridge: Those are records for a batch of eight-inch floppy disks I bought at auction. July 2015, thousand-count. Resold them to missile bases all over the country. Holmes: It's our understanding you delete your disks before you send them to your customers. Could there be valuable data on them nonetheless? Dunbridge: Oh, with legacy tech, anything you delete can theoretically be undeleted, but as for what's on them, I don't check. Bell: Considering someone went to all this trouble, good chance they think there's something valuable on one of those disks. Holmes: If that's true, finding our killer would mean doing what they're likely doing, tracking down every last one of these disks and identifying the one or ones worth killing over, and that's no mean feat, considering they've been shipped all over the country. Dunbridge: They haven't. I mean, not all of them, anyway. My sales ledgers record sales, not deliveries. Disks aren't actually shipped until they're needed. Yeah, I've still got a few boxes on hand. Want to see 'em? Mason: And boom. Easy-peasy. A lot of these disks weren't even properly deleted. I'm printing out hard copies of the first batch of data. Most of these disks are from some stationery company. We got orders, cost projections, inventory sheets, paper milling instructions. Holmes: What's the name of the company? Mason: Uh, Crake & Rail. They're still around. Watson: Oh, I see you bought a new fridge while I was out. Holmes: It's legacy tech, on loan from Mr. Eddy Dunbridge. How was your meeting with the fire marshal? Watson: She says that her final report on the fire at Ando's won't come out for a few hours, but she is officially ruling it an accident. Based on the burn patterns around the stove and the charred materials in the pan, Ando had just started frying up some hot peppers and garlic when the killer interrupted. Holmes: Hot peppers and garlic? Watson: Yeah. Why? Holmes: Well, the smell would have filled the apartment. Mason: So? Holmes: So you can go home. Mason: But I still have all those disks to go through. Holmes: That won't be necessary. Not only do I now have a very good idea why Ando Azuma was murdered, but I think the fire marshal has just given us a way to root out the killer. Holmes: This is the reason Ando Azuma was murdered. Or at least half of it. This disk came from Eddy Dunbridge's warehouse, but it originated at a company called Crake & Rail, a stationery company who make, amongst other products, the paper upon which all American currency is printed. Watson: Naturally, the recipe is a closely guarded secret, and even though the Treasury Department has added raised ink, holograms and other security features to our money, the recipe has not changed in decades. Holmes: Technically, it's not even paper. It's a textile. It's a blend of cotton, linen and other fibers. It's what gives American money its look, weight, feel. Bell: These old disks don't store much data, so Crake & Rail had to split the recipe onto two disks: that one, Disk B, and its companion, called, big surprise, Disk A. If a counterfeiter got his hands on both of them, he could literally print money. Gregson: I spoke with Crake & Rail's CEO this morning. He confirmed the authenticity of the recipe. He also said that the disks were probably accidentally recycled when the company upgraded their computers in the '90s. Watson: Eventually, the disks made their way to Eddy Dunbridge, who had no idea what they contained, so he deleted them, and then he added them to his inventory of legacy tech. Holmes: Sometime later, Disk A was included in a batch that was delivered to your secret facility, which is how it made its way onto one of your desks. Alvero: Are you approaching anything resembling a point? Holmes: My point is that one of you realized you'd stumbled upon one half of a lottery ticket with an infinite number of zeros, and all you needed to cash it was the other half, Disk B. Gregson: A few days ago, one of you broke into Eddy Dunbridge's warehouse and copied a list of all the bases that had bought Crake & Rail's disks, hoping to track it down. Holmes: But the guilty party had a problem. Even with the list, you would need time to find Disk B. Time that, with the impending upgrade to the Air Force's missile control system, you just didn't have. Legacy tech at bases all across the country, including Disk B, was about to be binned. Bell: That's when one of you had an idea, kill the guy who was testing the new system's security, Ando Azuma. The fallout would compel the Air Force to slam on the brakes, make sure they weren't compromised. Suddenly, there'd be more time to find the missing disk. Alvero: This is outrageous. Holmes: Oh, sorry. Sorry. I'm, I'm suffering from a condition called PCS. I, um, I just I have to eat regularly to stave off the, uh, symptoms, so if you don't mind... Alvero: What the hell is that? Holmes: Again, apologies. The mingled stench of rotting flesh, ammonia and gym socks is the hallmark odor of the durian. It's a fruit from Southeast Asia. My doctor says its blend of minerals and vitamins is highly therapeutic. Watson: It also just helped us identify the killer. Holmes: Hmm. Colonel Deakins would you join us in an interview room? Bell: You want to have a seat, Colonel? Deakins: No, I don't. I'm not staying. I, I just want to know, why do you think I killed Ando? Holmes: Your nose gave you away. Everyone else had an involuntary reaction to the durian's stench. But not you. You had no reaction whatsoever. Deakins: Fine. You got me. I, I have no sense of smell. Head injury at the academy. What does that have to do with anything? Bell: It has to do with the fire at Ando's, the one that almost ruined your plan. Deakins: What plan? Watson: You knew the Air Force would investigate his death. You wanted them to realize that his prosthetic finger was missing. When it came out that there was a hidden thumb drive in it, they would panic. Deakins: You're forgetting something. No one knew he had a fake finger. Bell: We don't think that's true. You're the one who hired him, correct? We're guessing he disclosed it to you, but you kept it to yourself. You were gonna tell everyone about it after he was dead. Holmes: Just one problem, you let a pan full of oil, garlic and peppers burn down his apartment. Anyone else would have noticed the smell and shut off the stove, but not you. Bell: The sooner you cop to it, the better it's gonna go for you. Colonel. We'll be watching you. Deakins: Watch all you want. You're fishing. And I'm not biting. Deakins: Mr. Shinura. Go: Call me Go. You weren't followed, were you? Deakins: No. Positive. Go: Your new passport. I hope you like the name Laura Harrison. If you don't, this should help you get used to it. Deakins: Yeah. Lieutenant Colonel Deakins was done anyway. Air Force made that clear when they passed me over for full-bird colonel. Might as well retire in style. Go: After you give me what I asked for. Deakins: Of course. Go: I must confess, when our informant in the NYPD told me you are the one accused of murdering Ando, I was skeptical. Ando was yakuza. He could defend himself. Deakins: Just a reminder, the drive is encrypted. Your boss said that would be okay. Go: My oyabun says this was a worthwhile investment. There could be anything on this drive, information that could hurt our organization, data we could sell, or perhaps it's nothing. In which case we are paying for peace of mind. Regardless, this concludes our business. Please, enjoy your retirement. Deakins: I plan to. Go: Uh, please, you must tell me. How did you manage to best Ando? How did you kill him? Deakins: Why the hell do you care so much how I... Bell: NYPD. Keep your hands where I can see 'em, Colonel Deakins. Holmes: We owe you an apology. We told you we'd be watching but neglected to say we'd be listening also. Go: You got enough? Holmes: Mmm, full confession might have been too much to hope for, but we have the pinky, so I'd say you're done. As are you, Colonel. Bell: You did good, Mr. Shinura. Department appreciates you holding up your end of the deal. Go: We are through? Bell: So long as you're on a plane to Japan in the next 24 hours, we don't see any reason to dig into the offshore account you were using to pay Ando Azuma. Go: That's great. But I didn't do this for me. I did this for Ando. No one kills a yakuza but a yakuza. Hannah: Aaaah! Category:Transcripts